Ascunderi textuale: trei recenzii publicate de Mircea Eliade sub pseudonim în ultimul număr al Revistei universitare

Abstract

After his resignation from “Revista universitară” [“Universitary Journal”] in 1926, due to the scandal ignited by his review of Nicolae Iorga’s “Essai de synthèse de l’histoire de l’humanité,” Eliade continued to collaborate with the publication under the pseudonym “S.N.”. The three reviews analyzed in this article may seem of little importance – short informative texts, they nonetheless reveal the diversity of the young author’s interests and the persistence of several themes from Eliade’s youth to his late maturity: Italian culture (in his review of Alexandru Marcu’s “The Italian Romantics and Romanians”), B.P. Hasdeu’s life and works, metapsychic experiences and esoterism (through discussing Alberto Fidi’s “Treatise on Talismans”). These short texts reveal what we have called a sort of individual “longue durée” – a long-term affinity for certain subjects which evolves gradually and thoroughly throughout Eliade’s life. His passion for B.P. Hasdeu’s work and personality, for instance, started with a highschool conference, continued with an unfinished book project (revealed recently at an auction) and grew into an edition of Hasdeu, published in 1937: “Literary, Moral, and Political Writings.” Our article also analyses the connections between Eliade’s early articles and this new, unprecedented material, that appeared in March 2022 at a national auction.